Bill Maher: Worse Than O’Reilly

NOVEMBER 11–Comedian Bill Maher was slapped yesterday with a $9 million palimony suit by an ex-girlfriend who alleges that the HBO star subjected her to physical and verbal abuse, including “insulting, humiliating and degrading racial comments.” In the below Los Angeles Superior Court complaint, Nancy Johnson, a centerfold model and former flight attendant also known as Coco Johnsen, alleges that Maher, 48, reneged on promises to pay her expenses and purchase a Beverly Hills home. Johnson, who says she dated Maher for 17 months before splitting from him in May, also contends that the performer promised to marry her and have children. Johnson, pictured at right, does not detail the degrading racial comments allegedly made by Maher, and recounts only one episode of supposed physical abuse by the host of HBO’s “Real Time.” She charges that Maher pulled her arm and shook her at one party, causing “injuries to her back and neck,” and later that evening warned he’d hit her on the head with a hammer if she was unfaithful.

Sounds “politically incorrect” alright…

Of course, he’s innocent until proven guilty and all that. But he always struck me as an arrogant jerk. I’m not terribly surprised that he got hit with a lawsuit of this sort.

I am rather surprised, however, that Maher has “jungle fever.” He seemed more like the type who went after mindless 19-year old, 90-pound white sorority chicks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Of course, I don’t know if these allegations are true, but Maher has struck me as a misongynist. He calls his female guests “honey” in a nasty little tone after berating them for daring to have an opinion [which would be why they were on the show, right?]. His general tone toward women on the show is not good, and some of the comments he’s made about women are pretty creepy too. Example: single women vote Democrat because they want someone to take care of them and since they don’t have a man, they need the government.

So I’m not having the “holy cow — really?” response to this story.

Padhraic

jungle fever?

rabit

So if you use a cheap racist term like, say, “junge fever” in quotes, then you’re being funny and not racist in any way, right?

empath

Worse than O’Reilly? Hmmm. Which of those books are moralizing tracts about how we should live our lives? I don’t think Maher is “Looking Out for You”, nor has he written a “Survuval Guide for American Families”. Besides, the lawsuit seems a little fishy too me. Maher makes a living with “insulting, humiliating and degrading comments”(racial or not), and he has publicly vowed never to get married or have children. Physical abuse is another thing altogether, but the “mental abuse” seems just like his public persona. It is really great, as well, to see someone try to slam someone else’s morality and then end their comments with a racist term like “jungle fever”. Nice one, RJ!

For the ignorant: “jungle fever” is a slang term for those who are interested in inter-racial relationships. It was coined by Spike Lee, a black man, who made a film titled, oddly enough, Jungle Fever.

It’s hardly “racist” to use the term.

empath

Black people in general and rappers in particular use the “n-word” all the time, that doesnt mean it isnt racist or that you get to use it. Plus, the movie “Jungle Fever” was about the trouble that such relationships bring, not some celebration of them. There is a bit of tongue and cheek to using the title in the first place. It’s certainly not the most odious term in the lexicon, but coming in a snide slam from you it just seems a little suspect.

RJ–How can you possibly try and compare Maher to O’Reilly? Did I miss the part of your post that mentioned that the woman WORKED for Maher?

Please explain, in a lucid fashion, how Maher is WORSE than O’Reilly when O’Reilly settled out of court for sexual harrasment and Maher is being slapped with a palimony suit as a result of a private relationship not involved with his show?

And empath, you stole my thinder about O’Reilly’s books. I’ll take O’Reilly’s advice about my family as soon as I start listening to that sanctimonious prick Bill Bennett lecture me about responsible gambling, or Rush “Vicodin” Limbaugh on legally obtaining prescription meds.

O’Reilly’s suit just further shows the hypocrisy of the right. Maher has never preached about morals, other than to say the religious fanatics shouldn’t impose them on the other half of the country that doesn’t share them.

Matt, I agree with you about right-wing hypocrites, but Maher is being accused of physical abuse and threats, not just verbal abuse. It doesn’t matter if it happened in a work environment or not. In fact, domestic violence, to me, is worse than sexual harassment at the office.

What any woman sees in Bill Maher in the first place — aside from his money and fame — is beyond me.

Like the Left doesn’t have any hypocrisy in it? Have you seen the recent report ranking the most “giving” states as far as charity and percentage of income? Nine of the ten least giving states were Kerry states in the last election, and out of those nine, four of them were the top states as far as average income.

So Dems want the poor to be cared for as long as it doesn’t come directly from their pocketbooks, is that right?

Spike Lee was mocking the use of the phrase “jungle fever,” which originated with white racists. (Something I’m sure RJ Elliott knows.)

Any woman of color who has been in the news business knows that Bill Maher likes sisters.* However, the feedback I’ve heard is that he treats women well, despite his playboy image. I’ve never heard Maher say anything racist, in real life or on television. We’ll see how the situation plays out.

*The Diva would have held out for Robert De Niro if she were into celebrities.

MCH

I could be wrong here, but I sense – reading between the lines of the post – that maybe Bobby Elliott is a little bit jealous…(?) Just a hunch.

RJ

“Please explain, in a lucid fashion, how Maher is WORSE than O\’Reilly”

– O’Reilly allegedly had phone sex with a co-worker.

– Maher allegedly threatened to smash his girlfriend in the head with a hammer, and physically abused her.

Fucking ridiculous as we have no proof either way to judge the man (especially vis a vis O’ Reilly who is an obvious fascist) except the words of a jilted lover. Bill may have a temper but until proof is shown that he is a serial batterer he still is way farther up on the food chain than O’Reilly and his cronies in NeoConville. Misoginist is a title that is bandied about a little too liberally for my taste. A healthy contempt for both sexes is neccesary to navigate the murky waters of amour. Anyway, remember Patrick Swayze’s character in “Donnie Darko” and Ted Bundy; fucking hiding behind a veil of decency and republicanism. At least Maher makes pretty obvious his dislikes. Concerning the “Jungle Fever” thing, it can be a bit offensive if one doesn’t have more of a context for it ( and that doesn’t include a mediochre Spike Lee film). And besides, just because you like one sister it doesn’t mean that’s all you like – Even Deniro switches it up I’ve heard.

I honestly had no idea I would get this kind of reaction. I have used this phrase before in conversations with friends and co-workers, and it was always taken as semi-humorous, hardly offensive.

I have also had black people joke about it to me in conversations (oh, damn, looks like so-and-so has got himself a case of jungle fever!).

So, I honestly meant no offense, if anyone was truly offended.

Re: “O’Reilly is an obvious fascist”

This is the sort of comment that makes you look just plain silly. It’s such a dumb statement that it negates the value of anything else you said.

The word “fascist” is thrown around quite a bit by the Left. They also throw around “Nazi” “racist” “bigot” etc. Such overuse devalues the power of these terms. It therefore strips them of any real meaning.

How presumptuous you are to use a familiarity with me, Mr. Elliott. You are not my friend. How dare you.

As to your query, as has been stated before, I will escape when I have the means to do so.

In the meantime, the ignore filter is on.

curt

“o’reilly allegedly had phone sex with a co-worker.”

ummm, bobby (rj)…settling out of court for $2 million plus sorta removes the “allegedly”…

Eric Olsen

A few thoughts:

they both are self-absorbed assholes: Maher exhibits aspects of “little man syndrome”; O’Reilly is paternalistic, pompous, and puffed up with self-righteousness – fuck them both, metaphorically speaking

RJ’s use of “jungle fever,” I believe, was clearly meant to be tongue in cheek and thereby humorous and not offensive, but RJ sometimes has a tin ear for such things, no?

And as others have said, the term has around for a long time

curt

just because a “term has been around for a long time,” does that make it alright? for example…the “n” word.

Precisely. It could not be that Maher just found this Nancy/Coco to be an attractive woman, could it? No, the melanin must be an issue, in the eyes of too many people.

Yeah, Maher seems like an arrogant, mysogynist prick, but he doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what he is like some others do. His refusal to marry or have kids is well known and on the record. He does seems to suffer from little-man syndrome. I agree (and I am a fan of much of Maher’s humor): Fuck him and O’Reilly too. And fuck anybody — including Spike Lee — who makes melanin an issue in relationships. The term “jungle fever” is offensive on its face; I’m sure this Nancy/Coco wouldn’t know a jungle if she tripped over it. Can’t two people who dig each other just be allowed to dig each other (sans abuse) without color-focused idiots casting aspersions? Sheesh.

Eric Olsen

I agree Nat that love should be allowed to be color blind, but I would say this is one area where there really has been a lot of change for the better over the last couple of decades. A lot of people still make note of it, but, I think, are a lot less judgmental than they used to be.

I moved back here to Va. Beach a little over a year ago…I was living out in the Phoenix area…I have a cousin out there that I grew up with in NJ who married a great guy about 15 years ago…Shelly is a very successful business man and takes great care of my cousin and their 2 kids. Even though I’ve been called a racist on this site, my cousin felt that I was one of the only east coast marsh’s that she could invite to her wedding back in the day. She told me that she thought I was open minded enough to except the fact that she was happy, and I was. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Shelly’s black.

Anyway, one of my more ‘redneck’ neighbors out there in sunny Surprise, AZ asked me that ugly redneck question one day…what would you do if one of your daughters dated or married out side her race? At the time, I said, if he’s a good guy and good to my daughter, so be it.

A few days later I was playing golf with Shelly and I told him about this conversation…he stopped me dead…he said, outside her race? you mean like a horse or a pig or something like that???

It had never even occured to me how seriously wrong my redneck neighbor had been in just the wording of the question until Shelly had put it that way! He’s a pretty smart guy, my cousin.

We are all part of the human race, there are good guys and bad guys and they come in all colors!

RJ Elliott = A million times worse than Bill Maher. (And that is without his posse of ‘scientific’ racists from Gene Expression in tow.)

It has been a while since I’ve blogged about interracial relationships. Maybe it is time to do so, again. Natalie gets to the core of the matter: Sometimes two people just dig each other.*

In this scenario, Ms. Johnson seems to have met Maher’s desire for notoriety, big boobs and probably not too much going on upstairs. I know that he has approached other women of color (and I’m sure not of color, too) who have brushed him off because of those propensities. The match made at the Playboy mansion disappointed Ms. Johnson, who apparently perceived it as a shopping list. So, she is striking out at an ex-boyfriend. From a legal perspective, I don’t think she has much of a case. The relationship was not particularly long for grown folks. She is able to support herself. Her claim Maher made her quit her job would be hard to prove. (And, with seniority, it seems she would be near the top of the list to return if she wanted to.) Unless there were witnesses to verbal and physical abuse, that will come down to he said/she said, too. A jury would likely take a look at ‘Coco”s penchant for frolicking unclothed and dismiss her as a bimbo. I suspect Billy Boy will pay her some nuisance bling bling and that will be the end of the matter.

*There can also be unhealthy, exploitive aspects to interracial relationships. That usually occurs when they mirror the racism and misogyny rampant in American society.

TheWerewolf

The thing that amuses me about ALL of this is that you’re debating the merits of someone because he’s been accused of something – not because he’s been found guilty of something.

You’re treating it as if they were one and the same.

Anyone can accuse anyone else of anything. I could accuse RJ of molesting my children. Doesn’t mean he did – just that I accused him.

Innocent until proven guilty is sort of irrelevent if you actually practice ‘innocent until accused’.

Not true. I rather doubt that Maher did what Nancy/Coco claims and I suspect, for her, it’s all about the money and/or revenge. I just think Maher is a pig in general, albeit an amusing, sometimes intelligent pig.

BTW, tithing to churches is counted in the giving survey. It is evangelical churches primarily that push that give-give-give business, so it shouldn’t surprise that poor Southern folk empty their pockets for Pat Robertson’s limos, er, the Lord. I don’t see the religious wrongers funding Food Not Bombs or Lambda Legal.

curt

your cousin’s response reminds me how the white press used to describe the great joe louis during his reign back in the 1930s and ’40s: “he’s a credit to his race…the human race!”

In response to Andy’s quite eloquent “dumb ass” and RJ’s well meaning but ultimately mundane “silly” responses to my use of the word “fascist” here’s a quick way to get over it: watch or listen to some Woody Guthrie or Bill Hicks performances. It’s possible that you two are riding my ass for questioning the overuse of the misogyny term (or trying to use the same logic on me) and I suppose by virtue of my doing so that is fair enough. However I use the term as I think the above mentioned Woody Guthrie or Bill Hicks did, to describe anyone who would seek or desire to( either publicly or privately) take away our civil liberites, a woman’s right to choose, the right to burn the flag, the right to ingest what we want, my right to wear a thong and anything else that is consensual and not harming another creature. People like O’Reilly, don’t kid yourselves, is probably one of those “fascists.”

All I know is I would rather line up for a half hour to see Maher, which I did in Las Vegas where he allowed Penn Gillette to tell Bill Nye to shut the fuck up so Esther Dyson to say what she had to say about computers.

I hope you, RJ, have a relationship with a non-inflatable-American so you, too, can find out what life is all about.

curt

i’m wondering if perhaps bobby (rj) is spending too much time on coco johnsen’s web site…

So, is the fact that she takes her clothes off for money an indication that she’s lying about whether or not Maher physically abused and threatened her? Or is it just that “women like that” deserve what they get?

JR

So, is the fact that she takes her clothes off for money an indication that she’s lying about whether or not Maher physically abused and threatened her?

Kinda, yeah. It shows that she is willing to go to greater lengths than most of us to make a buck. It also makes her claim that he promised to marry her seem less plausible.

Eric Olsen

although I would prefer there not be, there is logic in what JR says: willingness to break some social norms is not “proof” of willingness to break other social norms, but it may be an indication of such

boomcrashbaby

I’ve known quite a few exotic dancers in my day, I was engaged to one, as I’ve mentioned here before. Most of them were single moms who worked for good money, or to put themselves through college, etc. I didn’t know a single one who, because they danced, had a propensity for extortion.

Being open with one’s sexuality does not correlate with the ability to commit crime.

It also makes her claim that he promised to marry her seem less plausible.

Strippers get probably several dozen SERIOUS marriage proposals a month. Remember Pretty Woman? There is a strong need in males to ‘rescue’ damsels in perceived distress. That’s actually how I lost the one I was engaged to. (was for the best, for obvious reasons)

“I’ve known quite a few exotic dancers in my day, I was engaged to one, as I’ve mentioned here before. Most of them were single moms who worked for good money, or to put themselves through college, etc.”

My experiences have been somewhat different, BCB. Most of the strippers I’ve known are alcoholic, drug-addicted, bi-sexual borderline prostitutes who have more sexual partners in the average week than meals.

YMMV…

Eric Olsen

my personal experience would fall somewhere between the two extremes presented above, which leads me to preclude neither possibility in this case and in general: we aren’t really talking about being “open within one’s sexaulity” so much as flouting social norms for money

I’ve met both kinds of dancers..the kind bcb describes and the kind that RJ describes…but I would say that more often that not, they more closely follow bcb’s description…and trust me on this..I’ve met a lot of dancers in my life and dated a few as well.

curt

i trust ya, andy…i had a brief taste of that navy life my own self…(smile)

boomcrashbaby

what does YMMV mean?

there are good and ‘bad’ dancers, just like there are good and bad attorneys, good and bad accountants…..

societal norms? Cable tv? Hooters? Victoria’s Secret? Sex sells in this world, nothing could be more the norm. That’s my perspective. I understand what you are saying Eric, but I have to disagree, while acknowledging that there are other perspectives due to other life experiences.

Society condemning that which society does all the time doesn’t constitute a ‘norm’ for me. Personally, I’d call it an ‘abnorm’. We Americans excel in that.

Given the large number of men who frequent strip joints and topless bars, how “out of the norm” is it to work in such a place? Are we ascribing the same moral characteristics to the guys who like to go to these places, or just to the women who work in them?

boomcrashbaby

Most of the strippers I’ve known are alcoholic, drug-addicted, bi-sexual borderline prostitutes who have more sexual partners in the average week than meals.

Ew. Find a different bar. A smart stripper recognizes that her body is her biggest business asset and so takes care of it.

boomcrashbaby

Considering the fact that every guy talking about this thread has been acquainted with strippers and/or dated them, I’d have to ask how outside the norm is.

Bhw, I’m not moralizing. I’m saying her story won’t play well with a jury. In the circles she moves in (Pam Anderson and Bill Maher are pals) her portfolio may be an asset, but to the average cubicle dweller, it will not be. Women will come down on a ‘Coco’ particularly hard.

One account says that Nancy Johnson is a product of the foster care system. If that is true, I would not be surprised if she has some abandonment issues that Bill Maher stepped right into.

boomcrashbaby

Strippers are viewed with contempt by most, including even their customers. Because what they do is degrading, and they do it in public, and they do it for money

Doing it in public is probably the ‘bad’ part. Cuz if they did it on tv, they would be superstars.

Frankly, I dislike both O’Reilly and Maher to some extent, but while I find O’Reilly irritating and pompous, Maher is harder to take because he’s just overbearing and creepy.

O’Reilly wins some points with me for admitting that he’s not really a conservative and then going ahead and proving it with his odd mishmash of beliefs. He can also conduct a fairly decent interview when he respects the interviewee.

Maher on the other hand is constantly ranting, irritatingly claims to be a Libertarian and then espouses the most lunatic social agenda of anyone on the air. He also has a tendancy to fawn on certain guests to a degree I find rather off-putting. He’s also not funny. If I’m going to watch a comedian whose political views I find unpalatable I’d rather watch John Stewart who is actually funny.

I wasn’t passing judgment either, just describing the attitudes I see, and if any of us are unaware that people have a vast capacity for hypocrisy, especially regarding matters of sex and society, then we haven’t been paying attention

I’ve dated one stripper, who I met when I was DJing a club, but I didn’t know she was a stripper until deeper into the relationship. I never saw her work, quite on purpose, but it was definitely an issue as far as i was concerned.

Apparently two other young women I dated became strippers after we broke up, but the rumors that I “turned them to stripping” are baseless vile canards

I’ve dated them…married them…to say they are any less a person than any other employed person in the US is plain old BULLSHIT!!! They’re making a living…they’re not collecting welfare or any other BS…it’s nothing more than a job…sure there are bad ones…but damn..there are bad CEO’s too!!!

Time to be counted among the obscure minority of Blogcritics commenters who have never dated a stripper.

Not that I have anything against strippers, mind you.

I did go into a strip club once, but stayed less than five minutes. In that time I learned all I needed to know about the experience. What can I say? I prefer a relationship that starts out with conversation.

So, any strippers who’d like to date me probably won’t be able to meet me while they’re on the job. Sorry, ladies!

boomcrashbaby

In my case, she actually became a stripper AFTER we were engaged. She was jealous of my profession (adult entertainment) and it was a tit-for-tat, so to speak. Unfortunately it didn’t work. I don’t know how to get jealous.

Like Temple said. I think Bill Maher is a pretty well-known quantity. And, he is up front about his proclivities, whether it is animal rights or women many folks would consider bimbos.

The more I think about Nancy Johnson’s case from a legal perspective, the more futile her lawsuit seems. The courts will not order specific performance in a case like this. They will not make make him marry her or buy her a mansion. Her monetary losses are neligible because she would have had to pay rent or a mortage if she had not been cohabitating. Makeup and clothes? She would have purchased them anyway. And, venues like car shows and product promotions usually provide the outfits, anyway. (Been there, done that, but never close to naked, thank you.) Then there is the matter of whether a reasonable person would have expected him to marry her.

I find myself wondering if ‘Coco’ is a fairy tale girl. You know. Someone who actually expected a Prince Charming (Bill Maher) to rescue the damsel in distress (rootless foster child) and to live happily ever after in his castle (the mansion J. Lo and Ben resided in for a while incidentally).

As Bhw reminded us, it is possible Ms. Johnson was abused. However, unless she can prove it, the courts will not be kind.

JadedMystik

BEING A WOMAN WHO LIVED THE SUMMER OF LOVE AND EXPERIENCED BEING SINGLE THRU THE 70S, 80S AND 90S…..WELL I CAN TELL YOU……ME AND Most of the FEMALE FRIENDS I’ve known are/WERE alcoholic, drug-addicted, bi-sexual borderline prostitutes who have more sexual partners in the average week than meals.

I DATED INTERACIALLY LONG BEFORE IT WAS SO HIP…..WENT TO SWING CLUBS….DATED BOTH THE HE AND THE SHE IN SEVERAL COUPLES…..YES AT THE SAME TIME TOO…..AND I LOVED IT…….RIGHT ON TO BILL MAHER AND ALL THE FREAKS……RIP RICK JAMES BITCH

RitchCracker

Um………..has it occurred to anyone that just maybe BECAUSE Mr. Maher is a publicly self-proclaimed bachelor, the only way he could secure her company was to PROMISE her a significant relationship. She didn’t need his help for popularity or money. Just maybe after a year of dating him, she realized he’s just a liberal control freak and dropped him, but decided to make him EAT HIS WORDS on the way out.

None of you ladies ever done that to a man?

Even if, let’s say, he never physically abused her. I DO believe(believe being the operative word here) that he is capable of threatening her loyalty to him, because she is beautiful. Men do that sort of thing to beautiful women, because they know other men find them attractive and are, thusly, insecure about being able to keep her. So his strategy for securing her loyalty was to use VINEGAR instead of HONEY.

Instances of beautiful women getting slapped around by insecure, control freak men is not uncommon, i.e. Pamela Anderson, Sade, Robin Givens, etc.

HW Saxton

RJ,I totally agree with you. I don’t see
anything wrong with chasing after those
19 yr old, 90 Lb, college honeys either.

“I am rather surprised, however, that Maher has “jungle fever.” He seemed more like the type who went after mindless 19-year old, 90-pound white sorority chicks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…”

Well, it seems Bill has an answer for everything. His new girlfriend Karrine Steffans is a “former” hip-hop ho-hopper, making good in her new tell-all book “Confessions of a Video Vixen.” Ms. Steffans names names traversing this hip-hop mogul universe in her new book and has made some enemies with her kiss and tell memoir. Bill probably winked and said, “Now that is politically incorrect… let’s get together.”

I don’t think Bill Maher has jungle fever so much as he enjoys controversy. And yeah, in this day and age, a white man with a black woman is still taboo and garners more controversy than, say, an older white man with a teeny bobber or, say, a black man with a white woman.

We’ve gone from lynching black men who found white women attractive to darn near having nothing to say about it, especially, seeing many black athletes with their white wives appear common.

White men, on the other hand, are still socially castrated for their attraction to black women, especially if they are doing more than just discretely looking or being discrete in their relationships with black women. There are white athletes who have attested to this “problem” of being pressured to be discrete with their black girlfriends.

Since when has it become okay to wish for the death of political rivals on national television? After Bill Maher’s latest HBO meltdown, it’s time to hold his feet to the fire. So far, however, that isn’t happening.

On Friday’s Real Time With Bill Maher, the host simply couldn’t contain his hatred for Rush Limbaugh and the mere mention of El Rushbo’s name triggered Maher’s death wish outburst.

Maher has a history of bizarre episodes, including his Steve Irwin stingray-stab Halloween costume and gay-baiting RNC officials without evidence to support his assertions.

Though NewsBusters and a few other conservative blogs highlighted this disgusting exchange in weekend postings, Maher has so far escaped any real heat.

From NB’s transcript:

BILL MAHER, HOST: Why is it, I was asking Amy this, why is it that the Republican establishment, I guess it is, have so much disdain, not just for McCain, but for the other guy who’s still in it…Huckabee? They don’t like either one of them.

P.J. O’ROURKE, WRITER: Well, I think a couple of things are going on. It’s the it’s the twilight of the radio loud-mouth, you know? I knew it from the moment the fat guy…

MAHER: …You mean Rush Limbaugh and Sean..?

O’ROURKE: …from the moment the fat guy refused to share his drugs (audience laughter). I was, you know…he never called, he never wrote. I’m ready to party, you know, come on! No, I think it’s kind of over for those people. So…

If Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity or anyone else were to publicly wish for someone’s death, the Media Matters / Soros crowd would be going nuts and launching a national campaign to remove that person from the airwaves.

On our side of the fence, we’re not likely to go that far. But can we at least hold Maher accountable for his unacceptable outburst? Will we allow our political discourse to degenerate to Rwandan- and Kenyan-like levels?

Ah, well, you see, Pablo, for people like RJ it’s only funny if it’s at the expense of liberals.

It’s interesting that when Fox News’s John Gibson joked about Heath Ledger’s death the other week, it was the left-leaning blogs that went ballistic over it. The MSM didn’t bat much of an eyelid over that, either.

To be fair, though, mate, you have a bit of a blind spot yourself when it comes to us tugging on one of your lower extremities…